International Field Trip

After two weeks on the road, in four different countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, three more if you count starting in Holland, lunch in France, and driving through Belgium), my MWI class has returned to Delft. I will start with a few stories, and add more in the following days. I hope. There may be a time issue. On Monday we have fieldwork in Limburg until Wednesday, then beginning on Thursday is the 50th anniversary party for UNESCO-IHE and I will be dancing in two performances and attending parties and symposiums all weekend. But now it's a grey Sunday morning and I have nothing better to do besides look through a thousand photos and try to put some into words...First meet the team, Loreen (Philippines), Helga (Honduras), and Anwar (Bangladesh) were my primary traveling companions.

Water Treatment
In Munich, the drinking water isn't treated. No aeration, no chlorine. It is pumped from the ground and piped to reservoirs for the consumers. That meant we saw some pumping stations and not much in the way of drinking water treatment in Germany. In Zurich they treat their surface water, which meant we got to see a nice treatment plant. But of the 15 or so visits that we made during this field trip, only about 3 were directly applicable to my speciality. Fortunately, the rest (most of them) were really cool, regardless.

Futbol
In Munich we finally found a park to play in, about one week in to the trip. The match was well attended, with about 24 of the 41 participants playing, plus one professor. The pitch was small, with a tree in one corner, the ground uneven with manholes interspersed, and behind one goal was a small forest as a buffer from the major street. It was nice to stretch our legs after so much time in the bus (usually 3-4 hours per day). Water Supply beat the composite Sanitary and Integrated Urban Engineering team, but I think that is only because our team had Dr. Kebrab, who is lightening quick. And also since I got a futbol to my face with two minutes left to play. It was loud. I got hit on the side of my face and almost lost my balance. I thought that I had broken my nose, but there was no blood. Helga steered me back to the hotel and got me some ice. I had a bit of a swollen lip and my cheek was a bit pink the next day, but it didn't hurt at all. I was fine. Well, a bit annoyed because I missed the end of the match, but fine.

There was another friendly in Zurich, which was injury free, but on a real pitch, and a competitive game in Luxembourg that I didn't attend (I wanted to explore the city instead). I had hoped to have a match with another department, but the only time we saw anyone outside our program was from the bus window during the last day of the trip in Luxembourg, we saw the Environmental Science class. It was a shame that our bus kept on driving and all we could do was bang on the window to try get their attention.

Incinerators
We visited two. One in Zurich for municipal waste, the other in Basel for hazardous materials. Both were located in residential areas and only emitted steam. The energy from the waste was used to heat homes in the area and run the plant. At the haz mat site they threw entire sealed 55 gallon drums into an 1100C incinerator. From the camera you could see the contents explode and the steel melt. Apparently only six seconds at that temperature is needed to convert these dangerous chemical byproducts into inert molecules that cold be easily sequestered. After incineration there is waste, about 10% by mass that needs to be buried. But where? I think the Swiss send it all to Germany.

The Sewer of Europe
That would be the Rhine. We saw it upstream when it was clean. By the time it reaches Holland, it is not.
Swisshotel
After 10 days of the Ibis Hotel, we arrive at the Swisshotel in Basel. This can't be right, the hotel looks really...nice!? There are doormen, a concierge, a pool/gym/sauna, English newspapers. It's not that the Ibis Hotels were bad, they were just more simple. The location in Basel is perfect, about 750m from the Rhine and the center of town. Basel was my favorite city. It was quiet, almost silent except for the music, a cello and accordion player in the town hall, an orchestra practicing at the university on the hill, Vivaldi's Four Seasons creeping out into the main shopping street.

It was in Basel when I realized that I had an obsession with foreign food shops. During this trip, we couldn't pass a chocolate shop or bakery without me peering in the window (or wandering in for a moment). I had to find the street food, since it always tastes better than from a restaurant. But it's the posh food markets that I seem to like the most. The ones where the jars are arranged perfectly and the packaging so sincere that I actually believe that I will be a better person if I drink that tea or that my taste buds will be overwhelmed with pure delight by that grand cru of chocolate from Venezuela.

Up next...Free Day in Munich, What is a Trevian?, Luxembourg...